The quantity of information which is generally available has recently been increasing in leaps and bounds. The result is that the significance of concepts for accessing information or transmitting or switching information is continuously increasing.
Today, information is frequently transmitted via a data transmission system in which transmission processes can be automatically performed with the aid of suitable transmission devices. Such data transmission systems such as the internet or an in-house intranet are communication networks which include a number of computers or servers positioned at arbitrary sites. As a rule, the users of such data transmission systems are connected to the system by means of correspondingly equipped terminals, e.g. terminals, PCs, laptops, mobile radio devices, PDAs etc., equipped, e.g. with suitable interface cards, and can transmit any data to the system or call up any data from the system via the terminals.
Such data transmission systems—particularly the internet—have also been increasingly used for trading goods and services in recent years. In this context, on the one hand, the providers of goods or services can present themselves on “web pages”, which are technically implemented, for example, on a server of the provider himself, or of a provider of the provider, connected to the data transmission system or belonging to the data transmission system. The potential customers (also called enquirers in the text which follows) can call up these web pages via the data transmission system and thus inform themselves about the provider and his offers, respectively, or order goods or services directly.
If an enquirer is looking for a particular item or service, there is the possibility, on the one hand, to use a so-called “search engine” as a simple transmission device which, by way of the search terms specified, i.e. the enquiry data in this case, lists all web pages found which are correlated with these search terms. On the other hand, an enquirer can also use transmission devices provided for such a purpose within the data transmission system. These are special devices which, in most cases, are implemented in the form of software modules on one or more networked servers and which are essentially used for presenting, on the one hand offer data by the most varied providers of a particular item or service and, on the other hand, enquiry data of the individual enquirers, to compare these with one another and to ensure the smoothest possible communication between providers and enquirers. Such transmission devices are also called “virtual market places” because of their function similar to a real market place.
Such virtual market places are described, for example, in WO 97/26612 A1. In this document, various market places are accessed by way of an agent system. To each user, a personal agent is allocated. In this context, the software agent is understood to be a device which is capable of performing various delegated electronic actions for the user or another agent. The advantage of this agent system resides in, among other things, that by means of the agents, an enquirer can be anonymously active on the most varied markets in order to compare and to evaluate the most varied products and to buy products.
However, a fundamental problem of all previously known transmission devices occurs when the goods for which the enquirer is looking for a suitable provider are valuable information such as, for example, demographic information procured and assembled with great effort, patient data, information on industrial rights etc. Unlike the case of a material product such as, e.g. a television set, computer or also a particular known software, the extent and quality of what the enquirer is ultimately receiving from the provider in the case of a purchase is not apparent right away. As a rule, therefore, before concluding the trade, the enquirer would like to know as accurately as possible what information he can obtain with what quality from the provider in order to ensure that this is the information wanted by him.
On the other hand, the provider cannot communicate the information for the enquirer, or generally provide it to the transmission devices, even before a binding agreement about the trade because the information only has value for as long as it is not generally known and cannot be procured at any time by the enquirer even without payment to the provider. When the above transmission devices are used for finding information providers, the enquirers currently have to rely on trusting the provider, for example because they already know the provider from previous information purchases or have obtained recommendations for this provider from other enquirers.